Thursday, June 22, 2006

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe was a terrific family vacation. We always have a great time when the whole extended family gets together, and being in an amazing place just made it better. My grandparents very generously took us all on this trip.The scenery around Lake Tahoe is beautiful. Here is a little flavor for what we saw all week long:The week was filled with all kinds of fun outdoor activities (aside from Half Dome). There are WAY too many good pictures to post them all so I'll just put up a few of each of the main things we did.

Our big activities included taking a cruise paddle boat ride on the lake for a couple of hours, mountain biking along the shore, riding up a gondola to the top of a mountain overlooking the lake, and rafting down a river.But the main activity we did was hike through the mountains. In the early summer the lakes are swelled and the waterfalls at their peak. We did a lot of shorter hikes to cool falls, cool views, and a lot of places to climb on rocks.I had heard that there was some good rock jumping around Lake Tahoe because of all the steep mountains and lakes around. So I asked around where I could go to jump off a rock from relatively high up into a lake. We were pointed in the direction of Angora Lakes which were only a 1/2 mile hike from the trail head so the whole family headed out. When we got there I could see that across the lake there were some huge jumps. I talked to a worker at the resort on the lake and he said multiple people had died doing the 50 foot jump and people were regularly severely hurt doing it. Instead, he suggested a 20 foot jump which was much safer. That may sound wimpy but I wasn't interested in death, just a thrill. Plus, 50 feet is ridiculous...just try a 20-footer first and you'll agree. Carissa and I both did the 20 foot jump into the ice cold lake and it was great. I'm not kidding when I say ice cold; snow was melting from the hillside just a few hundred feet away into the lake.

Here are a few funny pictures from the week:On the cruise Molly got a hot chocolate and wanted a refill. Of course they are not free but we thought they might not be able to turn down a 6-year-old so here she is trying to get a refill. She's a little short for the counter...and was denied when she finally got the guy's attention.